WORLD EXCLUSIVE: OJ’S SECRET HIT LIST – PAYBACK’s a BITCH!

O.J. SIMPSON may soon be a free man and he wants payback on the people who did him wrong!

While locked up in a Ne­vada prison for kidnapping and armed robbery, the disgraced ex-football star has drawn up a mental “hit list” of those he feels betrayed him, The ENQUIRER has learned. And NOW that a judge has agreed to reopen the case due to charges of lawyer miscon­duct, the 65-year-old could be back on the streets on bail if he’s granted a new trial.

“There are a lot of people who were hoping that O.J. would die in prison,” a source close to Simpson told The ENQUIRER. “They bad-mouthed him, testified against him and blabbed about him in the press. They did it because they felt safe, believing they’d never come face to face with O.J. again.

“Now that there is a chance he will be released, these people are terrified – and they should be!

“At this stage – after already serv­ing almost four years of his sentence – and in his mid-60s, O.J. believes he has nothing to lose. He’s taking on the legal system, and he means business.

“And O.J. has a long, long memory. He has kept a hit list in his head and has told me, ‘There are people out there who will be very, very sorry they treat­ed me like they did.

“‘Once I’m free, it’s payback time! And payback’s a bitch!’”

O.J.’s former promoter Norman Pardo told The ENQUIRER: “It’s true – there are some people out there who O.J. wasn’t happy with, and they’re going to be very disappointed by this news.”

In 1995, O.J. was acquitted of the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend Ron Goldman. He was later found liable for the deaths, and the Goldman and Brown families were awarded $33.5 million. But as The ENQUIRER has reported, O.J. has gone to great lengths to keep them from collecting.

And in 2008, O.J. was con­victed on all counts including armed robbery and taking sports memora­bilia at a Las Vegas hotel room. He was sentenced up to 33 years at Nevada’s Lovelock Correctional Center, with no possibility of parole until 2017.

But on Oct. 19, O.J. and his appeals attorney, Patricia Palm, claimed in court that his trial lawyer Yale Galanter had misrepresented him, had a con­flict of interest in the case and knew in advance of O.J.’s plans to retrieve the memorabilia, which he main­tained had been stolen from him. Palm further claimed that Galanter didn’t advise O.J. of a two-to-five-year prison plea deal offer that she says O.J. would have taken. She also maintained Galanter advised O.J. not to testify.

If O.J. is released on bail, it’s possible he could exact revenge without even getting his own hands dirty.

“O.J. is exposed to a rough crowd in prison – murderers, gang mem­bers, kidnappers and drug dealers,” explained the source. “He has the connections and the money from his NFL pension to settle his grudges .”